


singing

by cosmicocean



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Gen, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, if anakin can be a magic force baby rey can be a mystical technology/force byproduct and that's that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 05:56:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18219104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicocean/pseuds/cosmicocean
Summary: Rey is the best scavenger Unkar Plutt has and she knows this. It is not vanity or self-importance that tell her this, but the size of the haul she brings into him. She knows this, and she knows it is because the other scavengers cannot hear the Singing of the ships. They can’t feel them thrum and whisper the way she can, don’t know that the derelicts, even as they decay, can promise where to find the best plunder.It is only when Rey is certain she is alone in an abandoned vessel that she Sings back. She doesn’t know how she would explain the sound that escapes her lips. It is a trill. It is a coo. It is a promise.A several years old drabble AU where Rey is not fully droid but not fully human.(based on a text post by baelor included in author's notes)





	singing

It’s not something she would tell people, even if she had any people to tell. 

People with limbs that they were not born with are not an unusual occurrence on Jakku. Rey knows this, but she also knows there is something distinctly different about hers. Their skin does not grow back. Some have abandoned their flesh coverings altogether. She knows they are not cheap, and that food matters more than appearance sometimes.

Everything can be ransacked for parts. She knows she is no exception. 

The arm wraps make her feel powerful and protected. Before then, they are necessity.

 

The question of how machine she is only bothers her on the late nights, when sandstorms howl outside her home and make sleeping difficult.

Does she sleep, Rey wonders? Or does she power down? Does she speak droid because she learned? Or was she programmed to? Was she birthed or was she built?

Does she not remember much of her life before Jakku because she was a child? Or was she wiped by her family?

That question is the most bothersome.

 

Most days, however, Rey simply is what she is, and dwelling on what she might be doesn’t bring portions to her home.

 

Rey is the best scavenger Unkar Plutt has and she knows this. It is not vanity or self-importance that tell her this, but the size of the haul she brings into him. She knows this, and she knows it is because the other scavengers cannot hear the Singing of the ships. They can’t feel them thrum and whisper the way she can, don’t know that the derelicts, even as they decay, can promise where to find the best plunder. 

It is only when Rey is certain she is alone in an abandoned vessel that she Sings back. She doesn’t know how she would explain the sound that escapes her lips. It is a trill. It is a coo. It is a promise.

 

Rey cuts her leg open badly on an exposed panel. It breaks sharply, and she has to drag it back home. She’s more than a little irritated. When things are dented, they are easily straightened. It’s harder when things break. But she has emergency supplies for a reason, and spends a careful two days rigging up a new one. It doesn’t work as well as her original, but it’ll do. 

 

Droids are smarter than Organics.

This is a fact Rey has known to be true for years. Organics look at her, and while sometimes they can sense something is a little Different about her, a little Off, they never guess correctly. Droids always recognize her for what she is.

Droids never tell. There are kinds of loyalties that Organics do not always understand, and this is one of them.

Sometimes the Droid scavengers leave her new tools that help her fix her hands a little smoother, little vials of oils that grease her joints better. She does her best to return the favor.

 

The years pass. The sands swirl. The ships Sing.

 

BB-8 spins around her home, chattering cheerfully. They were perhaps a little irksome at first, but Droids are always easier to talk to than people, and there is something soothing about having them around.

_Your extremities sound like they whir better than any other Droid I know_ , they chirp brightly that night. Rey shrugs.

_I’m not like any other Droid_ , she whistles back. 

_You’re not an Organic either._

_No._

_Huh_. BB-8 bumps her legs.  _I like you whatever you are._

She smiles a little.

 

Finn’s not a Droid. Rey can’t hear him Sing. But to her, he hums anyway. She can’t explain it.

 

It is when she bypasses the compressor in the  _Millennium Falcon_  and Han Solo stares at her in vaguely befuddled shock that she is abruptly reminded that she is not quite like Organics even off of Jakku. It’s a little rattling. She pushes it to the side.

 

Kylo Ren hums, too, except it’s not a hum with him, not really. It’s a droning, a deep knell that clatters off her wires hollowly. It scrapes the insides of her, and makes her feel sick.

 

When the lightsaber collides with Rey’s hand in the snow that makes her joints ache, it explodes and twirls into Singing so clearly that she almost can’t believe that Ren can’t hear it. 

For the first time, Rey can hear the Singing within herself.

 

General Organa’s hum is powerful, but a little muted. Rey’s fascinated. She didn’t know someone could stifle their own humming.

Rey’s figured out what it means when people purr. It slots into her world view perfectly, like she’d had an empty spot waiting for it.

 

C-3PO and R2-D2 don’t tell the General anything about Rey.

Loyalties.

 

It’s her third week on Ahch-To when Rey slips up on the boulder she’s levitating and it crushes her arm. She manages to wrest it free and is relieved that it’s only bent. She lets it hang on her way back to Luke’s hut. Luke gazes at her in horror and moves to assist her, but she waves her working hand at him and sits at the desk she’s seen him use to tinker with his hand.

“It doesn’t hurt?” he asks, clearly torn between concern and fascination. Rey searches for a scalpel on the desk.

  
“It never does.”

  
“It must be the Force,” he murmurs. Rey finds the scalpel and neatly opens her arm up. Luke makes a shocked noise. She looks up and realizes that he hadn’t known. She smiles to try and reassure him.

“Yes and no,” she tells him. “It’s electricity. It’s the same thing as the Force.” She wiggles her fingers. “It’s all just humming, in the end.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a busy few weeks where I haven't gotten to write for fun much, and I've finally been able to start up work on my MCU "Nebula and Tony bond while building a spaceship to get back home" fic which I'm now trying to power through finishing before Endgame comes out, which means I won't be able to post for probably a little bit. I've been meaning to post this drabble I wrote a couple years ago for ages, so I thought I'd post it now.
> 
> This idea came from a text post by baelor on tumblr. I know folk change tumblr urls but unless the person who has the cosmicocean url gives up theirs mine is pretty much the way it is forever, [so I'm linking to where I wrote the fic on my blog here, but the text post is there too, so credit can be given where credit is due.](http://cosmicoceanfic.tumblr.com/post/157408716641/baelor-young-rey-getting-into-mishaps-when)
> 
> I like this drabble more than I remember, and may still elaborate on it someday. We'll see what the future brings.


End file.
